Capital International Investors Acquires 121,914 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 7.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,856,125 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 121,914 shares during the period. Capital International Investors owned about 3.26% of Lincoln Electric worth $474,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 121,698 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,464,000 after purchasing an additional 2,664 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 76.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 12,092 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,630,000 after purchasing an additional 5,220 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 11,695 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,543,000 after purchasing an additional 881 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 1,501 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 18,437 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of LECO traded up $3.86 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $210.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 267,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 337,022. The company’s 50-day moving average is $195.48 and its 200-day moving average is $222.64. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.00 and a 52-week high of $261.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.33, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.08. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 13.23% and a return on equity of 43.81%. The company had revenue of $981.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. Lincoln Electric’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 30.15%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on LECO. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Loop Capital dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $221.71.

Lincoln Electric Company Profile

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells welding, cutting, and brazing products worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Americas Welding, International Welding, and The Harris Products Group. It offers brazing and soldering filler metals, arc welding equipment, plasma and oxyfuel cutting systems, wire feeding systems, fume control equipment, welding accessories, and specialty gas regulators, and education solutions, as well as a portfolio of automated solutions for joining, cutting, material handling, module assembly, and end of line testing, as well as involved in brazing and soldering alloys, and in the retail business in the United States.